New (and Improved!) Bead Soup - Now ALL RECLAIMED!

OK, so... yesterday I shared a new bead soup with you but was being apologetic about the bronze size 15/0 seed beads. You see, I am trying to make all of my jewelry creations using truly second-hand and salvaged beads and components but I had bought those particular beads in a bead shop so they didn't really "count". Then, while cleaning off my studio table, I found a vintage necklace (part of a jewelry lot bought on eBay) made of size 15/0 seed beads in a color so perfect for the bead soup! Yay!

So, it was out with the bronze metallic beads and in with the pretty taupe ones! The only trouble with that is that there was suddenly a real lack of color and contrast so I forged ahead and continued to dig through my stash.... and found another perfect necklace to salvage and add to the mix!

This necklace, from the same lot of jewelry as the taupe necklace, was made from multiple strands of beads: seed beads in several colors, amber glass chips, sage green glass rounds... absolutely perfect for this bead soup! Now the bead soup is made up of entirely reclaimed materials and the variations of color and texture will make for an interesting piece with lots of depth and contrast...

The palette is mostly gold, amber, taupe, and brown with silver, shades of dusty purple, sage green and maybe just a dash of orange thrown in...

The new and IMPROVED bead soup! :)